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Klis: Broncos' loss leaves a long-lasting hangover with fans

Broncos fans hang their head in dejection after Baltimore's 38-35 win over Denver. ( Tim Rasmussen, The Denver Post)

Go skiing, Broncos fans. Or drive up to Evergreen and skate on its frozen lake.

Head to Denny's or Village Inn and order yourself a piece of coconut cream pie with coffee.

Those New Year's resolutions should have been broken by now anyway.

If you're reading this before 10 a.m., go to church. Even if you haven't been to church since you were a kid and only then because your parents made you. Even if you're not a believer, go to church.

Something's not quite right today with the spirit of Colorado. We've gone backward. Last year the quarterback took a knee and a "Tebowing" craze swept the nation. Last weekend the quarterback took a knee and locals wanted to storm John Fox's office with pitchforks and lanterns.

The past year has been fraught with tragedies in Colorado. The Broncos' playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens wasn't one of them.

"Sports has gotten bigger and bigger throughout the decades," said Bob Brustad, professor of social psychology of sport at the University of Northern Colorado. "Especially here in Colorado, where the Broncos are so near and dear to people. All I could think of after that game was not the players, but the fans who had been there for 4½ hours and to have that outcome after they had invested so much of their own body heat."

I'm not usually a philosophical sort. Some people, when they want to get deep, they climb to the highest point of the nearest foothill and meditate. I go to the garage and grab a shovel.

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But it bothers me that so many people are bothered, so I called an expert. This isn't just the typical morose, bitter, angry feelings of the local team blowing the big game. I've never felt anything like it.

"I live in Fort Collins, and the next day I went to the supermarket and to look at people's nonverbal behavior. ... People were really affected," Brustad said. "It was really a tough blow. I can't think of a more difficult loss here by a Colorado sports team in the last couple of decades."

Was it like this after the 1996 season's playoff loss to Jacksonville? Maybe, but social media wasn't available then to inflame passion. People seemed to feel worse Thursday than they did Monday. The seven stages of grief?

This isn't healthy, Colorado. Let it go. Change the filter in your furnace. Change your oil (with the resolve to say "no" to the three other things the oil changers find wrong).

Hug your kid. Kiss your wife on the cheek. Walk the dog. Call your brother or sister. But lay off the alcohol. That's not recommended in your emotional, depressed state.

The Denver Post's NFL reporters post analysis, notes and more on this blog focusing on the Denver Broncos.

I cover sports for a living, but times like this make me wonder why sports consumes so many lives. My two sons were in school plays this year. There is comfort in knowing there will be a happy ending. Sports offers no such guarantees. Maybe that's what we love about sports. Yet, when the ending doesn't come out the way we want ...

"One explanation that does makes some sense is how the role of our social groups like family and church and even work to some extent have less power on us through time," Brustad said. "And an athletic team has become a strong sense of identity for so many people. It is a social connection, not just with that team but also all the people that like that team. I think Broncos fans feel bad for all Broncos fans because they feel connected."

When: Jim Harbaugh, coach of the San Francisco 49ers, takes on the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC championship game Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Georgia Dome. Older brother John Harbaugh, coach of the Baltimore Ravens, will match wits with Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots at 4:30 p.m. Sunday in the AFC championship game in Foxborough, Mass.

What's up: The Harbaugh brothers also got this far last season. Both lost heartbreakers — Jim to the Giants, 20-17 in overtime; John to the Patriots, 23-20 after kicker Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field-goal attempt with 11 seconds left.

Background:John, 50, and Jim, 49, spent seven years of their youth in Ann Arbor, Mich., where their father, Jack, was the defensive backs coach for Bo Schembechler's Michigan Wolverines from 1973-79. Jack later was the head coach at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky, compiling a 19-year record of 116-95-3. John played defensive back at Miami (Ohio). He was the defensive backs coach and special-teams coordinator for Andy Reid's Philadelphia Eagles from 1998-2007. He is 61-30 in five seasons as the Ravens' head coach. Jim spent his senior prep season at Palo Alto (Calif.) High School after his dad took a coaching job at Stanford. Jim went back to Ann Arbor to become a quarterback at Michigan and had a 15-year career as an NFL quarterback. He coached the University of San Diego to a 29-6 record from 2004-06, and then Andrew Luck and Stanford to a 12-1 record, including an Orange Bowl victory, in 2010. Jim is 26-8-1 in two seasons with the 49ers.

Their sister, Joani, is married to Tom Crean, the men's basketball coach at No. 2-ranked Indiana University.

Klis' take: There is more coaching success at this family's Fourth of July picnic than many universities have in a century. John's Ravens are 9½-point road underdogs for a second consecutive week. Jim's 49ers are four-point road favorites at Atlanta. I don't think either one makes it to Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans.

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